Ringing the bell for Salvation Army shows spirit of the season

Carolyn Alford

By Carolyn Alford

Published: Sunday, December 15, 2013 at 08:51 PM.

Hello friends and neighbors. It is good to see you here.

Have you completed your Christmas shopping? I have hardly begun. I’ve got to get on with it. Not forgetting the reason for the season, many churches are having their Christmas cantatas today and next Sunday. My church is having its program this morning. They are wonderful, entertaining and a great reminder of why we celebrate this holiday.

On Dec. 7, my Rotary club Jacksonville South rang the Salvation Army bell at Jacksonville Mall. It was great to see the generosity of the shoppers, especially the young Marines. They came in groups of three or four and were such gentlemen, holding the door for the moms to get the strollers and baby paraphernalia inside. I prayed that God would bless them for their goodness.

A young woman named Katie stopped to put money in the red kettle. She said that she was getting a coffee and asked if I would like one. I appreciated the offer and said yes. With the long lines, she was gone for a while but returned with a cup of hot coffee and would not let me pay her. Doesn’t that embody the spirit of the season? You hear about the rudeness of Christmas shoppers but if you want to see the best of Christmas shoppers, take a turn ringing the bell. The children work hard to deposit the money in the T-shaped opening of the red kettle and look longingly at the bell. I hand the bell to those children for a few rings. It will warm the cockles of your heart, literally and figuratively. The next crew of Steve Quinn and John Papurca reported for duty and I left the Mall better for having come. I’m going back tomorrow to ring the bell with The Daily News. Y’all come too.

Christmastime at the Strand

I went with the New River Baptist Association to Myrtle Beach last week. It has become an annual pilgrimage of fun, spending time with friends, shopping, and rest and relaxation, all the things that Christmas is about. There is much prayer and the shows are so entertaining. The performers make you laugh and then cry, especially when they remember the deployed troops that will not be home for Christmas and at the Carolina Opry house when the show ends with a reminder that Jesus’ life ended at the cross. Great stuff.

Have you completed your Christmas shopping? I have hardly begun. I’ve got to get on with it. Not forgetting the reason for the season, many churches are having their Christmas cantatas today and next Sunday. My church is having its program this morning. They are wonderful, entertaining and a great reminder of why we celebrate this holiday.

On Dec. 7, my Rotary club Jacksonville South rang the Salvation Army bell at Jacksonville Mall. It was great to see the generosity of the shoppers, especially the young Marines. They came in groups of three or four and were such gentlemen, holding the door for the moms to get the strollers and baby paraphernalia inside. I prayed that God would bless them for their goodness.

A young woman named Katie stopped to put money in the red kettle. She said that she was getting a coffee and asked if I would like one. I appreciated the offer and said yes. With the long lines, she was gone for a while but returned with a cup of hot coffee and would not let me pay her. Doesn’t that embody the spirit of the season? You hear about the rudeness of Christmas shoppers but if you want to see the best of Christmas shoppers, take a turn ringing the bell. The children work hard to deposit the money in the T-shaped opening of the red kettle and look longingly at the bell. I hand the bell to those children for a few rings. It will warm the cockles of your heart, literally and figuratively. The next crew of Steve Quinn and John Papurca reported for duty and I left the Mall better for having come. I’m going back tomorrow to ring the bell with The Daily News. Y’all come too.

Christmastime at the Strand

I went with the New River Baptist Association to Myrtle Beach last week. It has become an annual pilgrimage of fun, spending time with friends, shopping, and rest and relaxation, all the things that Christmas is about. There is much prayer and the shows are so entertaining. The performers make you laugh and then cry, especially when they remember the deployed troops that will not be home for Christmas and at the Carolina Opry house when the show ends with a reminder that Jesus’ life ended at the cross. Great stuff.

I loved the joke about the farmer who went for marriage counseling. His friend found him in the barn hugging and kissing on the tractor. When his friend asked him what he was doing, he said the doc told him that to please his wife, he had to be affectionate to “attract her.” I love puns and that’s punny.

The entertainers also used the joke about canceling the Nativity at the White House because they could not find three wise men in all of Washington, DC. The crowd howled.

The Myrtle Beach trip is where I usually start my Christmas shopping, loading down the van with packages from Hamricks and the outlet stores. Chris Bailey drives the Grant’s Creek Baptist Church van where we usually ride and he is wonderful to us. Last year he helped me load and transport home a stand-up George Foreman grill. My children all wanted that grill but like George, I fought them off.

This year our crowd from Blue Creek Baptist — Mary Faulkner, Barbara Woodward, Iris King, Faye Morton and I — only shopped two stores and the food court at the Mall where the Chinese restaurant was serving fresh watermelon this time of year. I don’t know where it came from, it might have been California or Chinese watermelon but I can tell you it was a treat to eat watermelon in December. A young man named Michael sat down at the long table with us holding a bag from Zales jewelers. We reached out to hold hands to say the blessing before the meal and he joined hands with us.

“Would you like me to say the prayer?” he asked. We agreed and he said a beautiful prayer thanking God for the food, his Son and the season.

Michael is a Keebler elf, distributing Keebler cookies and products to the stores in Myrtle Beach. He had purchased a great gift for his wife and proudly showed it to us. I would tell you what it is but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. She’s gonna love it. Those Keebler elves are as nice as they appear on television.

I texted a photo of the fresh watermelon to my daughter Britainy who was sitting in a plane on the runway at La Guardia airport waiting for the weather to clear. Brit got engaged while in New York. Her fiancée Matt picked up the ring and proposed to her at Grand Central Park. How romantic is that? I declare that child needs intervention though, leaving the South in the wintertime. So, I texted photos of fresh watermelon and the sun coming up over the ocean at Myrtle Beach. Nothing went in, that child is high on love. I read that Amazon is seeking approval from the FAA to deploy drones by GPS to deliver orders immediately. Maybe next time I can send an actual piece of the watermelon. Think that will get her attention?

Midnight at the oasis

Anyway, instead of shopping we played cards and just enjoyed each other’s company. Not to brag because that wouldn’t be fittin’ but I beat Mary and Barbara twice in a row at Phase 10. We played until about 1 p.m. or after when Mary left to return to her room. We stay at the Coral Reef Hotel that is built with hallways on the outside that let the air in. I’m sure that is great in the summertime but it is cold in the wintertime. I watched Mary to her room but she didn’t go in. I noticed her fumbling with the key so I walked down to see what was going on. Mary was putting her key in the slot, the green light was coming on but the door would not open. We pushed, pulled up on the handle, pushed down on the handle, and tried double handing it but the door would not open. We decided it was not the card because the green light came on; it had to be a malfunction in the handle requiring removal and/or replacement of the handle.

We walked back down to my room to call the front desk. A maintenance man was on the way up. While we waited, Mary walked the hallway in her pajamas and robe worrying about what she was going to do if they could not get the handle off that late at night— her medicine was in the room and where was she going to get clothes to wear. We were back working intently on the handle when the maintenance man came around the corner. He startled us and we both let out a yelp probably waking up the whole sixth floor. The maintenance man pulled a reprogrammed card from his pocket and immediately opened the door. I couldn’t believe it; we should have skipped the amateur mechanizing and worrying and called 30 minutes earlier. I miss keys. At least he didn’t ask for ID before letting Mary into the room. If he had, Mary would have been spending the night with me and Barbara.

More maintenance

There were five of us sitting across the back seat of the Grants Creek van so Roy Melton, who drove the Richlands Baptist Church van, graciously allowed me to ride home with the Richlands crowd. I sat on the backseat with my eyes closed. They thought I was sleeping but I was listening and taking notes.

Bonnie Melton had reported the day before that their room was on the 11th floor where she had not seen another person so she thought that they may have been the only people on that floor. On the ride home she reported that they finally had seen a man on the 11th floor and stopped to speak to him.

“Hello,” Bonnie said. “We thought we were the only people on this floor so I am glad to see you. Did the smell of paint bother you last night? I could smell it in the living room but not in the bathroom so I thought I might have to sleep in the bathtub.”

“No mam,” he said. “I’m the painter.”

I didn’t get to talk much with driver Phillip Gurganus and those on the Kellum Baptist bus except for Eleanor Marshburn. I love Eleanor. She has helped Shirley Moore and all of us with the Festival of Trees for many years and she is truly gifted. She did the Sweet Shoppe for a couple of years but this year she was in the gift shop and yard sale out back. Eleanor makes the best chocolate covered pecans. I hated I missed them because I wanted to say thank you to the Kellum ladies who make food for the volunteers on the Friday before the Festival. We surely appreciate it. Eleanor’s niece Krystal Phillips is the new Public Information Officer at Coastal Carolina Community College so now you know.

Before I go, I want to tell you about Walt who is a waiter and buses the tables at the restaurant at the Coral Reef. Walt’s wife died about two years ago so he and his mother, also a widow, live together and care for each other. The way his family cares for each other would have been enough to make me like Walt but his stories were too funny. He laughed and talked with the Richlands crowd. Walt ought to be in customer relations because he added to the enjoyment of the good food. All the wait staff were friendly and the omelet maker was superb. We look forward to the omelets all year.

Now it’s time to get on with shopping locally. I’ll see you there. Thank you for coming.